Brakes, would you trust these?

[drerock]

I recently bought front brake calipers on ebay. The seller claimed they were in working condition, but recommended to clean / inspect them.

I did and found them like this:









What do you think, will they still work if I put em' back together?

[subike]

I hope this is a wind up and you are showing us the calipers you are replacing

[MindWebs]

if your not joking then you got jipped.

that ones a goner. i would not use that on my bike.

https://www.partsnmore.com/cat_index...tegory=chassis
BRAKE CALIPER PISTON
Fits: Front & Rear, XS1100 (78-81),
Fits: Rear, XS1100L (1980) Midnight Special, XS1100S (79-81) Special.

$29.00US EA. Part#29-0516

hope that helps.

good luck

[natemoen]

I hope you can get your money back. That's not safe. They might work some, but I would not trust that in a hard panic stop.

[DGXSER]

As has been suggested, you could probably clean up the caliper body itself and it could be usable. But that piston is shot. Considering how much of your life depends on those brakes, and how underbraked the bike is to start with.....before you use that piston, take up jousting with freight trains!! JMHO.

[petejw]

you'll definately need new pistons,
but the seal sits around the piston so the caliper
bore isnt that important, the caliper itself should
clean up ok.

[natemoen]

There are some replacement piston on ebay usually. Don't know prices, never really looked.

[brcree]

Calipers

Oh man........what junk! Like everyone has said, the calipers can be cleaned but........dang! Those pistons are crap! I hope you didn't give that E-Bayer good ratings. I'd make them do you better on them man!

[drerock]

I have other pistons that look better, so I was wondering if a little corrosion near the top would be ok, since it probably will be out of the cylinder anyway...

I'm sure gunna' let this guy know though...

[Ken Talbot]

IF the corrosion on the piston happened when the pads were at their wear limit, it will be far enough down that when you put in new pads, the rough part will start chewing up the new o-rings immediately. I have cleaned lightly rusted pistons and reused them without incident, but never when they have been as bad as your second photo. Once the plating flakes off like that, it would be impossible to get it smooth enough and round enough not to leak or tear up the o-ring.

[brcree]

pistons

As long as the corrosion doesn't go down past the rubber seal you should be ok. If there is any bad areas just below the seal you wont have any leaking until the brake shoes ware down and pistons push out far enough to reach the bad area.

[DGXSER]

AS suggested, I'd clean up the caliper. If a piston is only rusted at or above that groove, then I's re-use it. Any pitting or flaking type of corrosion below there, or at least anywhere it will contact the O-ring when fully inserted into the caliper (like it will be with new pads on) and I would not use it.

Again, this is a matter of stopping when you need to. How much money would you spend to keep from plowing into the back of a cage at 30-50 MPH?? The money your talking about will seem REALLY cheap when your airborn flying over the trunk of a car. DAMHIKIJK!

[ManagerMike]

Per your post, the seller claimed they were in "working" condition and suggested that you inspect them. Be glad you did! Given that, I don't take this as a 'rip-off', just some old neglected calipers that were still "working".
I do hope you got them for a good price though.

[crazy steve]

Beauties...

Yep, the pistons are toast. The upper one some would use (but I wouldn't), the lower one is junk. Replacements are available (MikesXS, PartsNMore), you can even get stainless steel pistons for roughly the same price (look here: http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread...+steel+pistons). I got a set of the SS pistons and am pleased with the quality. These are for standards, not the specials or XJ bikes. Those seem to be harder to find.

The caliper bodies look to be ok as long as the bores are round. The rust will clean out with some fine sandpaper and lightly smooth the bores if they're gouged. The only critical thing is make sure the receiver groove for the seal is undamaged and spotlessly clean before putting in a new seal.

These probably were working fine with worn pads, but install new pads and push those pistons back into their bores and leaks/brake failure will be in your future...

[fredintoon]

I recently bought front brake calipers on ebay. The seller claimed they were in working condition, but recommended to clean / inspect them.
I did and found them like this:
What do you think, will they still work if I put em' back together?

Hi Eric,
I'm with the rest of them, the caliper bodies can be salvaged but the pistons are f**ked. Buying replacements will be less costly than salvaging them.
As to whether or not you were ripped off, it depends on exactly what the seller claimed. The calipers may well have still worked before they were removed from the bike, after all.